S OON after the opening of "Casanova's ChInese Restaurant," by An- thony Powell (Lit- tle, Brown), the novel's narrator, Nich- olas ] enkins, is discussIng marriage with his friend Hugh Moreland, a composer. Both young men make nervous, not very funny jokes to disguise a preoccupation that is also an anxiety, and Jenkins tells the reader that for him "marriage", al- though looming up on all sides, still seemed a desperate venture to be post- poned almost indefinitely." Nonetheless, by the end of the novel's first section both men have married, for they have reached the time of life when the "des- perate venture" is nearly Inescapable. And being married is what the book is about. It is the fifth In Mr Powell's senes called "The Music of Time." Each of its predecessors- "A Question of Upbringing," "A Buyer's Market," "The Acceptance World," and "At Lady Molly's"-explored a step in the process of growing up. In them, Jenkins, a well-connected English youth with a bent for literature, has been mov- ing, during the late nineteen-twenties and on into the thirties, from school to work, looking for his niche in society, frequenting dIfferent sets of people, surviving an unhappy love affair, col- liding with his elders, and following the ca- reers of his schoolmates. LIke "Casanova's Chi- nese Restaurant," the earlier books are Inde- pendent works, but they all have] enkins as their narrator and they share some other char- acters- Jenkins' friends and relatives. Jenkins has been an observer as much as an actor; he has often told the read- er his feelings, but hIs feelings have not always held the center of the stage. In "Casanova's Chinese Restaurant," Jenkins is diffident about his marnage. He does not expatIate on his love for his wife or extol the snugness of his mé- nage; he merely says, "I t is doubtful whether an existing marrIage 'Ýf RIl [, . ... :;'I I.f ."" t.. '",..., I l It \." · t A .. ; tÞ,, . Ì/4" E" BOOK5 Tlz,e Marriage State can ever be described in the first per- son and convey a sense of reality." Yet without attempting a first-person de- scription of Jenkins' marriage, the novel nonetheless illustrates his comment aft- er he announces his and Moreland's marnages: "Life . . . al] became rather changed. " For one thing, Jenkins' social life as a married man includes fewer accidents; he returns from an evening wIth an un- happy acquaintance who cannot be com- forted, and thinks that "the evening was curiously out of focus; a pocket in " d . h " tIme, an notIces t at marnage re- duced the number of interludes of that kind." His wife's family demands his at- tention, and some of its members en- gage his loyalties. When Moreland, unhappy in his marriage, falls in love with Jenkins' young, unmarried sister- in-law, Jenkins cannot serve as Y1ore- land'" confidant. It was a different story when they were both bachelors; More- land paraded his amatory confusions- he was as frank about his failures as some men are about their successes- and Jenkins sympathIzed. Now Jen- kins shares his wife's concern about her sister. "'{ et even if his sister-in-law were not involved, JenkIns' sympathy mIght not be forthcoming, for his attitude has changed. In the earlier books, and in thIS une, too-before his marriage- ç- "-3- , S3 JenkIns seems to have understood loves more easily than marriages; after his o\vn marriage he becomes more inter- ested in relationships within marriage than in relationships, however alluring, outside it. " c ' Ch . R " . asanova s Inese estauran t IS a sadder book than the earlIer novels. (In those, Powell sometimes seemed to be offering another view of the world we saw in Evelyn Waugh's comic, pre- Christian novels-a coincidence that re- minds one of the reality at the core of both men's work.) The change in tem- per fits Jenkins' maturity-he is now at an age when his and his contemporaries' sorrows or failures may not be decisive but when they begin to count; a lapse into alcoholism, a broken marnage, or an unsuccessful symphony may have lasting consequences, as, say, a school- boy prank will not. Even so, "Casa- nova's Chinese Restaurant" has some marvellously funny scenes, for it reflects life's insensitive habIt of scrambling the ternble and the ridiculous. Indeed, the devices-contrasts of mood, reappearances of characters- that provide aesthetic pleasure seem so much like the chancy way life functions that it is almost impossible to distinguish Mr. Powell's art from ordinary fact. The novel's themes have been plainly stated at the outset, during a dinner at --- 1 \ f;t.Ð \ PH&rO \ Tijb. <' I }- \ / , -t A '-t \.... t (} .. \:' I I._ "- J'- < X al iïi1l f. \ \ ,'-( t' t . . \ \ C""11 .Y \ :X .. r ......../ -----./ b. , \H -- ; \ f r -- .........,